Kallis, Ganguly have worst strike rates in IPL 5

Bangalore, May 4: Is scoring at run-a-ball considered slow for Twenty20? Yes it is. The shortest form of the game requires batsmen to throw their bat at every ball and always maintain a higher strike rate, a minimum of 125 would be acceptable.

IPL 5 has seen plenty of sixes and fours. After 45 exchanges between the nine teams, there were 415 sixes scored till Thursday night, with Royal Challengers Bangalore opener Chris Gayle leading the six-hitting table with 29.

When the focus is on big hits and bowlers suffering at the hands of some destructive batsmen, there are some who are way behind in terms of strike rates. Those batsmen could be blamed for lack of team's progress.

In an innings of 120 balls, if all batsmen score at run-a-ball, it would take them to 120 runs. That may not be enough on good batting surfaces. It is however, acceptable on pitches that assist bowlers. Mumbai Indians defended 120 on Thursday night against Pune Warriors. Such instances are few.

A look at the batsmen, who have so far scored a minimum of 150 runs, shows that Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Jacques Kallis has the slowest strike rate with 100.00. While this could be very good in ODIs, T20 demands more. There have been 28 batsmen who have gone past the 150-run mark till Thursday night.

Kallis has so far scored 183 runs off 183 balls in nine games. The next slowest among strike rates is Pune Warriors captain Sourav Ganguly (102.42). Ganguly has struggled for runs and has 211 from 11 matches.

Surprisingly, RCB's Virat Kohli too features in worst strike rates list in third position. His lack of runs has put him behind Ganguly with 103.22 for 192 runs in 10 games.

Fourth is Mumbai Indians left-hander James Franklin (105.12) followed by Rajasthan Royals captain Rahul Dravid (116.02). Dravid has the most number of runs in top five slow strike rates. He has 333 runs from 10 games.

The best strike rate is 163.60 among batsmen with 150 or more runs. It belongs to Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag.

So far, 12,903 runs have been scored with more than 50% coming from boundaries. 6,770 have come from boundaries. There have been 55 half centuries, two hundred and 511 wickets have tumbled. The longest six till Thursday night was 111 metres, by Gayle.

There have been 3,550 dot balls so far.

Top Five Worst Strike Rates In IPL 5 (Till Thursday Night, May 3). The list includes batsmen with minimum of 150 runs.